Entries tagged with: Bear in Heaven

Sensory Overload. That is how I'd describe Bear in Heaven's show at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Wednesday (5/9) night. There were '80s goth band levels of fog machine and a barrage of cool lights to go with it, both of which matched well to the bombastic space jams Bear in Heaven produce. Those big fat synths the band favors sound great really loud, as do drummer Joe Stickney's Miami Vice-style fills. I wish the new album, I Love You It's Cool, had the drums mixed that loud, it's definitely one of the signatures of BiH's live show.

They played Bowery Ballroom the night before, but the Music Hall show was the final night of the five-week tour promoting I Love You It's Cool, and playing before a neighborhood crowd the band were both punchy and pumped, especially singer John Philpot who was dancing even more than he usually does. TheZambri sisters hopped on stage to dance during "Reflection of You" and then sang -- as they often do at hometown shows -- on "Lovesick Teenagers."

Both openers on the bill made good use of the projection screen. Portland's Blouse had washed-out slow-mo imagery that looked like a Cocteau Twins album cover come to life which suited the band's rainy day dance music. Montreal's Doldrums played in front of what seemed to duped-over videocassettes, which is kind of what their music sounds like too, though the band (now a trio) sound more and more like a cohesive unit and less like the weird dabblings of Eric Asher every day.

...watching them play last night with waves of roto-toms and giant synth pads washing over us, it struck me what that is: the Miami Vice soundtrack (Jan Hammer, Phil Collins, Yello, Glen Frey, etc) condensed into one band, albeit one that also loves Yes and late '80s/early '90s techno. Which is a really strange combination, but Bear in Heaven make it work, due in part to excellent musicianship and that they clearly love playing. All three members (singer Philpot, bassist/guitarist Adam Wills and drummer Joe Stickney) let the O Face slip when they're in the moment, which, in their case, is endearing.

If you haven't seen them live yet in their roto-tom-loving glory, Bear in Heaven did a set for Yours Truly during SXSW (they also played one of our Hotel Vegan parties) and you can watch that below. You can also download a remix of "Sinful Nature" by Anika and Bestmate at the top of this post. And if you haven't heard their new album I Love You It's Cool, you can stream it at Spotify.

Lollapalooza has revealed its official 2012 list of performers -- a typically wide-ranging smorgasbord of genres and styles topped by nearly a dozen mainstage headliners: the Red Hot Chili Peppers, freshly reunited bands Black Sabbath and At the Drive-In, the Black Keys, Jack White, Florence + The Machine, the Shins and Passion Pit, plus spotlighted electronic music including Swedish house titan Avicii, French dance duo Justice and DJ-producer Bassnectar.

The annual music festival is scheduled for Aug. 3-5 in Chicago's Grant Park.

Rumored lineups have circulated widely, as they usually do, and Lollapalooza itself stoked the speculation in recent weeks via a series of CTA and online advertisements that seemed to hint at who would be playing.

The ads featured lyrics from such acts as Sigur Ros, Santigold, Jack White, Kimbra, Twin Shadow, the Weeknd, Bloc Party and more -- all bands that wound up on the bill.

"...it offered the perfect setting for seeing multiple bands within an intimate setting in a short amount of time. Sure it was a long walk down Sixth Street to get there, and it may not have been the most well kempt venue (I'll be honest, it was a shit-hole), but the three stage set-up provided for prime SXSW day party viewing. I had the pleasure of seeing Chelsea Wolfe, Japandroids, Frankie Rose, Deaf Heaven, and Japandroids all within the span of a couple hours. All of these bands were on my list of bands I wanted to see, and thanks to this venue, I was able to cross more bands off my list than past years"

As you know, BrooklynVegan is taking over ALL THREE STAGES at connecting Austin venues Hotel Vegas & Volstead for FOUR DAYS STRAIGHT this week, and it's all 100% FREE (no RSVP or badges either). There's a big outdoor stage, and smaller stages inside Hotel Vegas & Volstead. Collectively we're calling the four day long party "Hotel Vegan" (located at 1500 E. 6th St, Austin, TX).

This is a rare opportunity to see Frankie Rose perform songs from her great new album at SXSW. She made a very last minute decision to come to Austin. Everyone on the third stage is from Chicago! (including The-Drum who is not to be confused with the Drums who we have Thursday.) Come early. Stay all day.

And in addition to the completely free lineup of 24 bands playing on THREE stages, we will also have complimentary drinks courtesy of Brooklyn Brewery (while supplies laset) and HobNob Wines, the official wine parter of our entire week of FREE PARTIES at Hotel Vegan (check out HobNob's Facebook page for free music downloads), and a hosted bar courtesy of Sailor Jerry

Special thanks to all of our partners and sponsors for making this party possible - including Vox, Blackstar and Korg, our official backline partners. And special thanks to Tim Griffin for making our Hotel Vegan flyer.

--

This just one of four full days at Hotel Vegan. Thursday lineup HERE. Saturday lineup HERE. Friday lineup HERE.

"Man it's weird playing new songs," Jon Philpot admitted to a beyond-packed Union Pool last night. "But once you go and download that leaked record you're gonna be all, 'oh I like that one.'"

Billed under the pseudonym Adventure Hippies, this badly-kept "secret show" was Bear in Heaven's first in NYC since finishing their third album, I Love You, It's Cool, which is still a month from release but may have made its way to the internet the day before. If the crowd, many friends of the band, had heard it I don't think it had time to sink in. The new songs still felt fresh and foreign, if still distinctly Bear in Heaven.

And Bear in Heaven definitely have a sound, and watching them play last night with waves of roto-toms and giant synth pads washing over us, it struck me what that is: the Miami Vice soundtrack (Jan Hammer, Phil Collins, Yello, Glen Frey, etc) condensed into one band, albeit one that also loves Yes and late '80s/early '90s techno. Which is a really strange combination, but Bear in Heaven make it work, due in part to excellent musicianship and that they clearly love playing. All three members (singer Philpot, bassist/guitarist Adam Wills and drummer Joe Stickney) let the O Face slip when they're in the moment, which, in their case, is endearing.

The band sounded up to speed with the new material even if the audience wasn't. I Love You, It's Cool has more of an ear to the dance floor than Beast Rest Forth Mouth, and the techno-leaning "World of Freakout" and likely-second-single "Cool Light" really stood out, as did "The Reflection of You," which is the only song off the album we were really familiar with. Bear in Heaven threw us a couple old bones too, "You Do You" and "Lovesick Teenagers" which Philpot joked "that's classic Adventure Hippies there, going way back!"

Bear in Heaven will begin playing under their own name starting Saturday in Hamden, CT, as they make their way to Austin for SXSW, the start of an extensive North American tour that has them playing through March and April, winding up back in NYC for shows at Bowery Ballroom on May 8 and Music Hall of Williamsburg on May 9.

All Bear in Heaven tour dates are below, as is the zoom-crazy, potentially nausea-inducing video for "The Reflection of You" which was directed by John Lee of PFFR/Wonder Showzen/Delocated/Muckafurgason...

Bear in Heaven will play their first NYC show in over a year at Union Pool in Brooklyn TONIGHT (3/1). It's a secret show. They're listed on the bill as "Adventure Hippies" who play after Helado Negro who play after Test House.

All of their tour dates, and their new video for "Reflection of You", below...

Bear in Heaven's new album, I Love You, It's Cool (due out April 3 via Dead Oceans) is still streaming at 400,000% slower than actual speed at the band's website. They recently spoke to VICE about it...

VICE:Are any of your fans who were drawn in by the pop sound bewildered by this experiment? How's the overall fan response?

Bear in Heaven: So far the response has been great. Bear in Heaven fans can handle our artistic leanings. I read one thing on Twitter where a person asked if we were printing the drone on vinyl. He wanted to know so he could buy a new shelf.

For a more apparent sample of the album, you can grab the track, "The Reflection of You," above or stream it below.

If you want an early listen I Love You, It's Cool, the album will be streaming between now and April 3rd via Bear in Heaven's website. Don't get too excited though. It's more of a trickle. The band have slowed down the album 400,000% so that it will take from now till April 3rd to play through one time. The band explain via a press release:

As a band, we have always sought to balance our interest in art and outsider music with a sense of humor about our place within the entertainment industry. When we began discussing the making of our third record, two recurrent themes emerged:

1. The desire to release a companion piece of music that was more abstract and drone based than the material we had played every night for the last 18 months or will likely play for 18 months straight following the release of this record.

2. An equal desire to have a little lighthearted fun with and comment on the current state of album promotion, hype cycles, countdowns and all the marketing ploys that we accept as a reality of existing within an internet age.

At some point these two ideas merged into one. We would stream our album earlier and for longer than anyone else had before but we'd stream it once. We'd stretch it far beyond the limits of being recognisable as pop music. Draw it out so that snare roll lasts for days. Invite listeners to interpret and consider each sound. Sit back and breathe.

The new album will be co-released by Dead Oceans and Bear in Heaven's original label, Hometapes, and is their first since 2009's Beast Rest Forth Mouth. All Bear in Heaven 2012 tour dates are below.

We recently mentioned that Sharon Van Etten and Shearwater are planning a tour together that hits NYC at Music Hall of Williamsburg on February 24 and Bowery Ballroom on February 25. Tickets for both NYC shows are available for AmEx presale now, and general sale starts Friday (11/11) at noon. All dates have also since been announced and are listed below.

After the tour, Sharon will go on a string of dates with The War on Drugs, who open for The National at Beacon Theatre the night before Sharon does. Sharon's new album, Tramp, comes out February 7 via Jagjaguwar.

Sharon's friends and fellow Brooklynites The Antlers are following their release of Burst Apart, which came out earlier this year, with the (together) EP, which features material from the Burst Apart sessions. It includes collaborations with Neon Indian, Bear In Heaven, Nicole Atkins, and a cover of The xx's "VCR," which you can download above. The EP's tracklist is below. The Antlers are currently on a European tour and will return to NYC for a Webster Hall show on December 10 with Suuns. Tickets for that show are still available.

Speaking of The xx, they've recently begun working on a new album and have started a blog, where they've posted the message:

We have started recording our second album! We have also started this blog where we will post our inspirations + pictures + favourite songs. We hope you enjoy it! Lots of Love, The xx

Julianna Barwick, who is also a guest on Sharon's album, recently released the Matrimony Remixes EP, which features remixes of two of the tracks off of her most recent LP, The Magic Place, which came out earlier this year. The entire EP is available to stream and download for $5 on bandcamp and features remixes by Diplo & Lunice, Helado Negro, Alias Pail, and Prince Rama. Julianna also provided guest vocals to Korallreven's debut LP, which comes out November 15 via Acephale. Her vocals appear on the song "Sa Sa Samoa," which you can download above.

"Sure, we're all sick of bands with the word "bear" in their names (to the point, that I'm actually sick of jokes about how many bands there are with "bear" in their name).

Bear in Heaven double up on annoying indie band trends by being from Brooklyn as well, but while it would be easy to dismiss them as a poorly named hipster band, they're actually a solid vaguely Krautrock sounding indie act worth seeing." [Tuscon Weekly]

It's on Tuscon!

Bear in Heaven concluded their tour Friday night in their home borough at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Fellow buzzbands Sun Airway and Twin Shadow opened the sold out show.

Twin Shadow's video for "Castles In The Snow", with some more pictures from Music Hall of Williamsburg (Chris's camera broke at the show, so no pics of Twin Shadow and just a few of the other bands), below...

Night fell down on Austin Town and it figured it'd be a busy night. And with The xx and Temper Trap setting the table for LCD Soundsystem, Gogol Bordello, Monsters of Folk, Deadmau5, Matt & Kim, MIA and Muse, Saturday did indeed set it self up to be remembered as ACL 2010's strongest.

Except for the part where MIA screwed things up during her set...

...M.I.A.'s set saw plenty of anticipation on the west end of the fairgrounds, but little payoff: The first song saw didn't even see Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam on stage, and, though she came out for the second, that first song worked as a fitting metaphor for her entire mumbled performance.

Here's the thing about performing in festivals, especially on a main stage: Very few people actually see the performers; they rely on the accompanying video screens to share the visual side of the performance. But rather than the performer (or any of her five packing dancers or DJ) , M.I.A.'s screen showed illustrations. M.I.A., meanwhile, spent minimal time in her set's early going on stage, instead opting to interact o the grass in front of her closest fans. An admirable offering, perhaps, but it left the rest of her crowd in the dark, straining their necks to see her dancers or maybe just the neon "Maya" sign that served as her backdrop.

Her vocals weren't helping matters, either. They were already mixed too low, and Maya, for the most part, mumbled her way through the proceedings. Audiences thinned out--only to be pulled back in once the video screens finally--mercifully--showed the performer stalking the stage, and performing her biggest hit, "Paper Planes." [Dallas Observer]

Bear in Heaven are in remix heaven. The band employed some killer folks to contibute to a remix LP of the tunes of their 2009 LP Beast Rest Forth Mouth. Justin Broadrick, The Field, High Places, Twin Shadow and others all lend their talents to the project which is currently being packaged for sale with the original release digitally. Get yourself a copy. Field remix above. Full tracklist below.

Meanwhile, Bear in Heaven are prepping to hit the road with Sun Airway, meeting up with one of the culprits from the remix LP, Twin Shadow, for four dates that will include Music Hall of Williamsburg on 11/19. Tickets are still on sale.

Three of Bear in Heaven's dates are with Cloudland Canyon, who played Union Pool last night, and who play a free in-store at Permanent Records in Brooklyn today (9/17).

Philadelphia's Sun Airway's debut album, Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier, is due via Dead Oceans on October 26th. Dig on "Put The Days Away" available for download above (grab a 2nd track in a previous post). The band employs tons of visuals in their live show, which come off as videos when watched on their own.

Ra Ra Riot tourmates, Givers, are playing The Mercury Lounge on November 6th. Tickets are on sale at noon. It's Givers' only New York City show at the moment. They're not opening any of the four New York Ra Ra Riot dates.

Tunng is playing The Mercury Lounge on November 11th. Tickets are on sale at 9:30 PM.

After missing their chance to play South Street Seaport last week, but with plans to be back in NYC to play Cake Shop and Monster Island this week anyway, YellowFever made a surprise appearance as the openers of the South Street Seaport show this week (last night, Friday, July 9th). Two days earlier, the Austin band released this statement...

"After enjoying the fine facilities at the Harris County Jail, bologna sandwiches, cute orange outfits, new friends, and *very* public restrooms, we are pleased to announce that we will be continuing our tour tonight in New York! We intended to kick off our tour by flying to NY to play the Seaport show, and returning to Texas to drive our hippy camp-wagon through the glorious South over the 4th of July weekend, but were rudely interrupted by the TSA who decided to cart me off to jail for forgetting a kitchen knife in my backpack and accidentally carrying it through airport security. Anyway, after our brief meeting with The Man in court Tuesday morning we drove straight to New York." - Jennifer Moore, YellowFever

Note Jennifer's cute orange outfit in the pictures below.

YellowFever were followed by Zola Jesus who was followed by the biggest hit of the night, Brooklyn's own Bear in Heaven. More pictures from the free Seaport Music Series show (part of the River to River series), below...

"The Austin City Limits Music Festival began as a modest, two-day event and now, as it enters it's 9th year, has become a perennial American music experience. Taking place at the heart of Austin, Texas in the legendary Zilker Park, ACL Festival has grown to 3 days, 8 stages and over 130 bands."

Further, you can catch Zola Jesus supporting Wolf Parade at Terminal 5 on July 13th (and on a couple of their dates on the West Coast). Tickets are still on sale. That's around the same time Wolf Parade's new record, Expo 86, comes out on Sub Pop. The cover is below.

Also, "The annual Children's Day at the Seaport culminates with the spectacular Target Fireworks, featuring a special performance by The Apples in Stereo accompanied by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. During the day, families can enjoy performances by Gordon from Sesame Street, Angelina Ballerina, and more, while meeting their favorite storybook characters like Clifford the Big Red Dog, Curious George, and Madeline. (June 26) "

Modest Mouse will be reissuing their third album, The Moon & Antarctica, on vinyl for its 10th anniversary, on Record Store Day - this Saturday, April 17th. "The album features restored original artwork and replicates the infinite lock groove found in the original vinyl pressings of 2000. The new vinyl reissue includes a download card for the album." All dates the the P4K Fest lineup, below...

The Pitchfork Music Festival celebrates its 5th anniversary this year at Union Park in Chicago. It runs from Friday July 16th - Sunday July 18th. Three-day passes are now sold out, but you can still get single-day passes on Ticketweb.

tonight (2/16): New Cantora Records signees Bear Hands play The Studio at Webster Hall. You can download the band's percussion-heavy new single "What a Drag" for free from their website if you're willing to give them your email address. You can also watch the video at the bottom of this post.

Also tonight (2/16), Beast kick off what is now a run of threeNYC shows. As we pointed out earlier today, "Beast are at the Living Room tonight. They play the Cameo tomorrow night late...and they've added an early set at the Mercury Lounge on Wednesday, where the show is with Fight Like Apes, Honor By August, Stationary Set and Tryptics."

The Bloodsugars

This week is last of Savoir Adore's February Thursdays residency at Cake Shop and we've got a pair of tickets up for grabs. Just email BVCONTESTS@HOTMAIL.COM and we'll pick a winner at random. In addition to Savoir Adore (have I mentioned their album made my Best of 2009 list?), it's another good group of openers. The Bloodsugars make '80s-inspired widescreen pop that at times sounds uncannily like Prefab Sprout -- and good Prefab Sprout, not "hot dog jumping frog Albequerque" Prefab Sprout. Which is to say these folks know their way around big pop hooks, and are kind of a perfect match with Savoir Adore. You can download "Light at the End of the Tunnel" from last year's underrated I Can't Go On, I'll Go On at the top of this post.

Also on Thursday (2/18), Dan Black is in town at Mercury Lounge. There's a new version of Dan's single "Symphonies" that features Kid Cudi, and you can watch the new video for it at the bottom of this post.

A few more shows. Bear in Heaven, who were just great at Mercury Lounge a couple weeks back, play Glasslands on Friday night (2/19) with Secret Machines. What I like about them live is that you can tell they all really enjoying being in Bear in Heaven and playing these songs. They're just a lot of fun to watch, and they're pretty tight too with a drummer beats the shit out of his instrument.

Secret Machines are headlining, a band I haven't seen play in some time but have always liked. They've got a trippy, string-heavy new single, "Like I Can," that you can listen to on their website. Also playing what sounds like a full evening are electro rock quintet Mon Khmer, Noveller and Papa.

Saturday (2/20) marks the end of The Beets/Beach Fossils/Christmas Island tour where they'll play Music Hall of Williamsburg along with German Measels and headliners Crystal Stilts who I still haven't managed to catch since Frankie Rose left the drummer's chair.

Dum Dum Girls

Speaking of Frankie, she'll be pulling double duty Sunday night at Mercury Lounge where her own bandThe Outs will open for Dum Dum Girls (she's their drummer). DDG's debut album for Sub Pop is about six weeks away but you can download the album's first single, "Jail La La," at the top of this post. (It's out on 7" today with a nice cover of the Stones' "Play With Fire" on the flip.) I'm usually not one for re-recording songs that have already been released, but I actually think this recording is spruces things up just enough without unraveling their reverby gauze. After heading to London for a few shows, Dum Dum Girls will be back for SXSW and then will go on tour with Girls in April. All dates are at the bottom of this post.

Frankie & the Outs are really coming along as a band too, and thought they were fantastic at Monster Island this past weekend. The vocal harmonies in particular are the band's strong point, with a bit of soul in there too actually, kind of like some late-'60s girl rockers. I'd love to hear them cover The Kelly Affair/Carry Nation's "Sweet Talking Candy Man" from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. But maybe that's just me.

Also playing are Dum Dum Girls' Sub Pop labelmates Happy Birthday, whose super-catchy song "Girls FM" is downloadable at the top of this post. It's power pop, but kind of gritty/garagy and makes me anxious to hear more.

That's it for this week. Flyers, videos and tour dates after the jump...